The Gardian
by Jaganchi B
Summary: COMPLETE! Who is Aimi? And why is Kurama suddenly claiming she is no longer his sister why are these stupid demons after her what do they want with her and why the HELL is Hiei playing Mr. bodygaurd and Heroman? Gag. Read and Review!
1. Busted

Kurama!" someone screamed as they came tearing out of a forest. They looked about 16 and had pitch black hair that reached middle of her back, a blue tank top with spaghetti straps that reached just below her waist, and flared blue jeans that weresemi-tight until they flared. Her eyes were a changing color kind, but they only changed into red when she was angry, a dark blue when she was sad, black with red pupils when she protected someone she cared for, and a sapphire blue any other time. She was the kind of girl that sometimes had problems making friends because she came on strong and was a little odd, and some people disliked her, but she ignored them. "Why do they talk behind my back? The chickens. Anything you can say to me, you can say to my _face_, jerks!" was what she would always say.

"What is it?" Kurama asked as he turned around quickly. "What happened?"

The girl was trembling from head to toe. "In…In, "she gasped for air "In the forest…I saw…this freaky looking green mucus thing!"

"Oh. You must be talking about the swamp monster." Kurama gave a laugh and said, "I never guessed that my tough-as-nails sister would be afraid of him" then he started to laugh again.

"Hey!" cried the girl, -Kurama's sister-?, "It's not funny! " she said it with so much defense that she began to giggle a little, too. "Well, I guess it is, psh" she tried to puff out her chest and look tough, failing miserably. "_Nothing_ scares me"

When they could control their laughter, Kurama said, "Well, lets head home. I think that's enough training for today. I don't think I could take another one of your punches to my gut. Though, I wonder if you'd be a match for Yusuke…" he mused

"Who's Yusuke?" she asked with a quizzical look. Kurama seemed to realize for the first time that he was still speaking out loud. Kurama slapped a hand to his forehead. After all this time, his two worlds had never meshed. Now he was home again in the human world and so were the rest of them. Things had quieted down since Yusuke got fired and Kurama began to once again enjoy life's little pleasures. Such as spending time with his sister. "Oh Aimi, Im so sorry, Ive forgotten once again to introduce you to them, I'll arrange…"

"instead of arranging a time, lets just go home and call and see if who's available."

"You always were a quick and logical thinker." He laughed, "Like father, like daughter" he continued.

"No…" she said with a sigh, "More like, like brother like sister."

As Aimi combed her hair, her gaze fell on a picture of her ex boyfriend, Hikaru. Number one punk at shasville high and boy did Aimi love "bad-boys". She sighed and slapped the picture face down on her dresser, it was time she moved on. She hurried out and sat on the couch with Kurama, As they gaze out the window, Aimi spotted a short guy (well, short compared to Kurama, taller than Aimi; yes, I changed Hiei's height) that was about 5'9", wearing all black, and looked like a total bad boy. I forgot to mention that Aimi really liked bad boys. "Hey Kurama," she asked, "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's just Hiei. He probably just ran here, hes faster than any transportation that we know as humans."

"Of course I did," started Hiei

. "_Man, his voice is so cool_! _And damn is he hott!_" thought Aimi, "_and to think that for two years I thought Hikaru was the best looking guy ever! Well, as they say, save the best last. And then thiers the..."_

"and I think you should know that I can read minds, you fool, and _your_ thoughts are starting to make me sick" he finished, breaking into her thoughts

"Does that mean that you 'heard' what I just said? In my head, I mean."

"About the whole thing of _Man, his voice is so cool_! _And damn is he hott! __and to think that for two years I thought ..."_

"Yes, ok we get it! Thank you!" Hiei smirked

"_Idiot_!" she thought, cursing herself

"So why did you ask me to come here, Kurama?" asked Hiei, somewhat annoyed at Aimi for being so…different.

I wanted to introduce you to Aimi," he said, motioning towards her. "Her idea of a relaxing afternoon is sparing until our arms fall off, but she is good, I'll give her that. She can do the basics like teleport and Spirit Gun, but she also has more advanced abilities like copying moves and such. I was thinking that she could take on Yusuke by now."

"Pheh," stated Hiei. "I doubt that. Even _I_ have trouble beating him." Aimi could keep herself silent no longer

Aimi laughed and said, "Seriously? Man, that's rich. And you look pretty powerful too."

Hiei said nothing he really couldnt kill the annoying girl, because well, he wasnt entirely sure if that remark was meant to be an insult or compliment. and she sure gave no further clues. Kurama thougth he heard a knock on the door, he went to check. He was out of the room for less than five seconds when Hiei and Aimi were powering up to duke it out. Kurama rolled his eyes and tried to figure out a way to stop this nonense. This time he was sure of it, there _was _a knock on the door. Aimi and Hiei had heard it too and pulled thier glares away from each other and looked towards the door.

"Kurama! Sounds like Hiei beat us here, but who else is in there? Sounds like a girl. We know what you're thinking! Naughty naughty!" said the person on the other side of the closed door, as all three of them rolled thier eyes. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"Oh perfect, all of Koenma's fools are lined up on your doorstep, Kurama" said Hiei sarcastically.

Aimi laughed and went to open the door. "Be careful, Aimi," Kurama quickly cautioned before she reached the door, "They'll come quickly." Aimi nodded, then opened the door and jumped out of the way. Even though she had moved as fast as possible without her powers, someone still managed to stomp on her toe.

"Hey, Shorty!" Kuwabara said in greeting to Hiei, who scowled in return.

"Hey Kurama!" Yusuke said cheerfully, and if possible, cockily, "Hey—who's the broad?"

"If everyone would sit down, I'll tell you." Suddenly the whole room went silent, and everyone sat down on one of the many couches. For some odd reason, Kurama had three couches and two rocking chairs in his living room. "Everyone, this is my sister, Aimi" explained the red head once the shuffling had died down. At this At this point Aimi put her arms up as a defense because while reading all of thier minds, she had reached the blue haired girl who called herself, Boton. She had a feeling Boton would pounce on her and scream her name,like she began to do now.

"Aimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" screamed the girl, who then ran into the bathroom, and locked the door behind her. She leaned her back against the door, just in case.

"Well jeez," said Kuwabara, "that didn't go very well, now did it,"

"Shut up, kitty-lover"" snapped Yusuke, "I'll go get her" but before he could, Kurama held up his arm and blocked him.

"She won't listen to you, you are just a stranger to her."

"Yah, but—"

"_Just stay here_," Kurama hissed, very unusual for his almost constant calm composure. Yusuke stopped dead in his tracks, and froze completely. Kurama walked off next to the bathroom door and knocked. "Aimi?"

"What?"

"Will you come out? I promise Botan won't pounce on you."

"Why should I trust you?"

Kurama rolled his eyes, "Because I am your older brother, and you've trusted me for years."

Aimi could think of no come back so she changed tactics, "Okay...why should I trust _her_?"

"Aimi," Kurama said dangerously.

"_Fine_ then, I'm coming out," They heard a very loud click and she emerged, looking quite annoyed while muttering a few choice words of profanity.

"Hey, Aimi, my names Boton!" exclaimed Boton, with her normal cheery voice and threw her arms around the small girl and refused to let go. She squeezed while Aimi tried her hardest to free herself.

_"Please, please, please, Help me Hiei!"_ she thought-asked the shorter demon.

_"Hn, I dont think so."_

_"Aw...You suck. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE—_"

"_fine, maybe I will, but you'll be able to hear what I say anyway._"

"_Dont get a hernia forcing yourself." _Hiei glared at the girl as if to say, _do-you-want-me-to-do-this-or-not? "Sorry" _Aimi apoligized quickly in her mind. Hiei rolled his eyes, Aimi was sure all three of his eyes were glaring at her. With out warning both girls heard:

"_Botan; your PDA is making me sick. Do I have to kill you to keep you from being foolish?_"

Boton giggled and then thought. "_You just might, Hiei. Besides, just because you are a little goth boy doesnt mean you can spoil other people's fun."_

_"I should have slit your throught when I had the chance. Besides, it doesnt look like _she's_ having too much fun. Release the Onna, Now!"_

"Goth boy," Boton shot outloud.

"Baka Neko!" yelled Hiei, following suit. (**baka neko: stupid cat) **

"Shrimp"

"Whench"

"Hey, Hey, Hey You guys, Break it up" exclaimed Kuwabara, barrelling through the two

"Lets not start a war," added Kurama

"Yes, this is supposed to be a _fun_ time, not a _war_," added Kurama.

"Hey! How about we do something fun while we're here! Like……play _Spin the Bottle_!" suggested Boton.

"NO!" protested Hiei and Aimi at the same time.

"No way in _hell_ are you getting _me_ to play that _foolish_ game," growled the short fire demon.

"Well fine then, Hiei, you don't have to—" Keiko, the voice of reason, was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Um, I'm sorry I'm late, but this is Kurama's house, isnt it?" asked a small, quiet voice.

"YUKINAAAAA!" yelled Kuwabara as he charged at the door to let her in. "I'm so glad you could make it!" A short, light blue haired girl with a red ribbon in her hair walked in. She had a proper light blue kimono on and tatami sandals and tabi socks on. "Im so glad you could make it, Baby, Have you been thinking about me? Because You havent been off my mind" he rambled.

"Oh, I'm sorry Yukina. I didnt leave the door open because I thought you weren't coming, you were so late."said Kurama apologetically, "The reason for me calling you here is that since I have been home and things have quieted down a bit. I wanted everyone to meet my sister, Aimi"

"Oh. Hello, Aimi. I'm Yukina," said Yukina with a polite bow.

"H-h-hello," said Aimi who bowed in return, shocked by Yukina's politeness. '_I didn't think there were people like her around nowadays,_' thought Aimi to herself, blocking Hiei out.

"Well, if _someone_," Keiko started, glaring at Hiei as she said someone, "doesn't want to do _Spin the Bottle_, then how about ..."

"We all sleep over here, at Kurama's house!" Boton cut it, excited.

"Well actually, I was going to say..." Kayko trailed off because Boton, once again cut her off.

"I mean its Huge!" she said, taking in the largeness of it all." It was a pretty big house for Japan and all. Aimi only realized this when Boton pointed it out. All these years, she had just taken it for granted. "Please, Kurama! PLEASE can we have a slumber party? Because see, I calculated it and we havent all spent more than six straight hours together in over nine months. I mean, you know, as a family"

Now it was Hiei's turn to interuppt. "Boton!" he exclaimed, "Dont make me rip out your precious voicebox!"

Boton ignored him and put on a sad, sort of pathetic look that she thought might help her get a yes from her fox friend.

"It's fine with me. The only problem will be keeping Hiei here. He might _run away _during the night."

"Don't worry about him, Kurama. _I'll_ keep him here," Aimi said with a sneer.

"And how the heck are ya gonna do that, Half pint?" asked Yusuke

"I have my ways," she said sneezily, and when Yusuke wasnt expecting it, she punched him in the stomach, and kneed him, causing him to fall over. She leaned over and looked down at him. "Save the short jokes for Hiei, and dont call me half pint." she hissed darkly.

it was all Yusuke could do not to wet himself.

**-read and review please  
-flame if you must  
-_Jaganchi B!_**


	2. Now that was scary

"Ummm, Yusuke? Where did you get that wine?" asked Kurama, with a slight nervous tone in his voice.

"From the supermarket a few blocks away. Why? You want some?"

"Um, no, it's just that I don't think you should be drinking at your age…."

"Oh well! This is party! We're supposed to drink!"

"_No_ you aren't, Yusuke Urameshi," said Aimi, snatching the bottle away from him.

"HEY! I bought that! It's mine!"

"And now I'm going to take it back and get you your money back. This isn't even a _good_ brand of wine," she said, scrunching her face up at the label as if there were a bug there. Kurama argued with himself about whether or not he could scold her, and besides, how would _she_ know if it were a good brand of alcohol or not?

" Damn you. Give it back, you little bitch"

"You ain't sober, so I ain't listenin' to ya."

"Yes, I don't think she whould, anyway, Yusuke," added Kurama.

"Hey, shouldn't we all put down out sleeping bags now?" asked Botan, overhearing the argument and trying to change the subject. Unfortunately, he change just led to more arguing.

"At _9:30_! no!" yelled Aimi.

"Yah, the party's just started!" added Yusuke. "You cant end a good party with out someone on the floor."

'_Come on, Hiei. Join in our ranting!_' asked Aimi through thought.

From the window seat, Hiei replied, '_Not if you idiots paid me. Be satisfied that I'm staying at all._'

For about an hour, the sleepover went on like this, Yusuke and Aimi arguing, and then Aimi trying to get Hiei to join in, and then Botan trying to break it up…yah…just an annoying, loud, and pointless cycle.

"Hey everybody!" yelled Keiko over the arguments, "Let's watch Grave of the Fireflies! My friends all say it's good!"

"I don't think we should," said Aimi, "I hear it's super-depressing and _my_ friends were sad and gloomy for a _week_!"

"Fine then, let's watch…Happy Preppy School Days!" (**_so it's a really stupid title. So sue me) _**Hiei glared at Keiko.

'_Oh come on, Hiei_,' said Aimi to him, when she saw the glare, '_it can't be _that_ bad…can it?_'

'_Fine, I'll watch it…but only if I get the couch closest to the bathroom._'

'_Why?_' She didn't know just how bad it would actually be, which was made clear when he said:

'_Because I think I might puke while we're watching it._' '_Oh, okay, mind if I sit next to you? Looks like all the other seats are taken._'

'_Whatever._'

At that point everyone was sitting down (Hiei teleported and Aimi walked to the couch they wanted) and Keiko was putting in the tape. Apparently the movie was about the most popular girl in school (who was a prep) and who liked a sweet guy, but he was a nerd, so she _couldn't_ go out with him. It would be breaking the 'super-prep' rules, so she went out with one of the jocks, who turned out to be a real jerk. In the end she gave up her peppiness (at that point Aimi heard Hiei mutter, "Thank _God_, that was getting on my nerves.") and went out with the nerd, and became a nerd with huge glasses and nasty teeth and everything. Botan, Keiko, and Yukina were all crying at the end, but Aimi was about ready to puke.

"How about since the _girls_ got to choose a movie, the _guys_ should get to choose one too!" suggested Kuwabara.

'_WOW. He just might actually have a tiny brain in there somewhere…_' thought Aimi.

"Well, let's choose something scary, with the storm outside and all (it was raining hard, and thunder and lightning were going on too, forgot to mention that), it would set the perfect mood!" said Yusuke, "Like Signs!"

"Yah!" yelled Kuwabara in agreement.

"No! It's too scary!" screamed Keiko.

"It's okay," Yusuke said in his manliest voice, "_I'll_ protect you."

'_Oh God, just kill me now,_' from Aimi. She mimed puking and to her surprise, Hiei nodded in agreement.

By the end, all the girls (except Aimi) had tired themselves out from screaming, the guys had marks on their arms from where the girls were gripping so hard, Yusuke was beginning to regret his "I'll protect you" comment, and the girls had fallen asleep in their guys' lap. (Yukina on Kuwabara, Keiko on Yusuke, and Kurama had put Botan's head on the back of the couch they were sharing) Aimi was just bored, and staring at the screen. Kurama had wanted to see the movie when it came out, so they watched it together, but she wasn't really all that scared by it. Kurama actually jumped a few times, but that was probably because Aimi insisted on sneaking up behind him several times, earning her quite a few death glares from the spirit fox. By the time the movie was over, it was 2:00am.

"Well, do you think we should put the girls in their sleeping bags?" asked Yusuke, sounding sleepy.

"Sure, why not…?" asked Kuwabara, his eyelids drooping. After the guys—well, Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara—had put the girls to bed, they all collapsed into their sleeping bags and fell asleep.

"You feel like sleeping?" asked Aimi to Hiei.

"Not really…" he said and teleported to the window seat and stared out the window at the moon and stars.

"Hey, you seat stealer," she said mock-meanly, "I was gonna sit there!"

"Tough."

"I'm gonna go change to my PJ's." Hiei didn't answer, but just stared out the window.

When she came back in black flannel pants and a light blue t-sihirt, Hiei was still staring, so she got in her sleeping bag, and said, "G'night, Hiei."

"Hn." With that, Aimi went to sleep, and woke up 2 hours later to find Hiei asleep in the seat. She got up and put a black blanket around his shoulders, then whispered in his ear, "Sleep tight," and went back to sleep.

After she closed her eyes, his fluttered open and he rolled his eyes and opened his jagan and began to peak into her dreams. He and her were about to _kiss_. Hiei's eyes opened wide. Aimi woke up and managed to stiffen her screams so that not everybody was woken up, only Boton stirred, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Light sleeper apparently. Aimi looked over at the real Hiei, who by this time had begun to fake sleep. ""_Now _that_ was scary!"" _thought the girl and Hiei at the same time.


	3. What the hell did you do to her, Hiei?

"Wakey wakey time, Yusuke!" said Keiko, pulling the sheets off of Yusuke.

"What the hell, Kayko! It's only 10:00!"

"How later do you _normally_ sleep in on a weekend?" asked Aimi , who had gotten up at 7:30 because she couldn't sleep. She usually didn't sleep much because her body could take it.

" Noon," said Yusuke defiantly, "and I don't wanna be disturbed until then!"

"You sound like a little kid. Come on, Yusuke."

"NO!", completely ignoring Kayko's remark At this point Aimi was getting _really_ pissed off at Yusuke.

"She said," Aimi growled, getting into a position to use her powers, "get _UP_!" she yelled as she used her powers to raise Yusuke off the ground and 6 feet into the air; the drop him.

"OOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! You idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing!" screamed Yusuke

"Getting you up," said Aimi , walking into the kitchen, "and then making breakfast. Sausages, eggs, ham, bacon and toast sound good to everybody?"

"Do you have any orange juice?" asked Keiko. "It's for my diet."

"_You're_ on a _diet_?" asked Yusuke. "Well, it sure ain't doin anything for ya," Nobody but Aimi saw the tears in Kayko's eyes, which earned Yusuke a punch on the head, making Kayko giggle.

"Okay, orange juice as well." After she finished making breakfast, she loaded up her plate with everything, got a glass full of orange juice, and teleported over to the window seat. '_Hah!_' she thought, '_Got here before Hiei!_'

"You idiot," said a voice behind her, and she jumped about a foot in the air, and almost spilled he orange juice. I forgot to mention that she was surprised really easily, but to make up for that, her reflexes were good, thus she was able to catch the orange juice before it fell. She still had spilled a few drops on the floor.

"Don't _do_ that, Hiei!"

"Why not, baka?"

"And don't call me a baka!"

"How about baka _onna_ then?"

"How bout baka otoko for you?" (**_Note from the Author:_** Again, 'baka' means idiot. 'Onna' means girl and 'Otoko' means boy.)

"Why am I even arguing with you, you fool?"

"Takes one to know one." At this point they were glaring daggers at each other.

"You two, come and eat!" yelled Kurama.

"I don't like eating at the table," they said in unison, then glared at each other.

"Can't you eat somewhere _else_?" asked Aimi .

"The window seat's big enough for _three_. Now move, human"

"Are you calling me fat?" she paused and got the real meaning of his worlds, "And I am _not_ a normal human, you imbecile!"

"Hn"

She let out a howl of rage. "_Fine_," she said. In her mind (she had learned how to block out Hiei, so he couldn't probe), '_I should be nice to him, cause he seems like he could be a real cool friend…but I just don't want to, and he just pisses me off so easily!_' After that they ate in silence, ignoring the talking coming from the other room.

'_You know,_' thought-said Hiei, '_you really have the potential to be a better fighter._'

Aimi decided just to follow suit and thought-speak back. '_How would you know?_' _wait!' ' Was that just a compliment?' she thought to herself only. _

'_I saw you lifting Yusuke into the air this morning._'

'_And you could tell I wasn't applying myself...how?_'

'_I could sense you weren't using your full power._'

'_Yah, well, I didn't wanna seriously injure Yusuke!_'

Hiei looked thoroughly confused, '_why?_'

'_You can be really heartless sometimes, did anyone ever tell you that?_'

'_Yes, Kurama reminds me daily, but I still don't see his point._' Aimi was thinking at this point that any other _normal_ person would be looking sad because every day they're reminded by someone they hate that they're heartless, and she looked over just in case, and saw that Hiei had proved her wrong; he was just his normal solemn self.

She was about to reply with a '_Dang, your life must suck,_' but all of a sudden she had a sharp pain in her head, and it just stayed there, driving into her brain, it seemed. Hiei immediately sensed her pain, and so did Kurama, because Hiei was busy trying to listen to her thoughts, which immediately became muffled screams, and Kurama had a strong sense of spirit energy. Right after Kurama stood up the table, Yusuke ad Kuwabara sensed it as well.

"What wrong with Aimi ?" asked Yusuke.

"I don't know. I think we should go check on her," replied Kurama.

"What the hell did you do to her, Hiei?" yelled Kuwabara, running into the other room.

When they all got there, they saw Aimi cringing on the floor, and Hiei kneeling next to her, silent, trying to find out what was wrong by listening to her thoughts.

"Can you tell what's wrong with her?" asked Kurama, but Hiei answered him with silence...listening, and waved him off.

All of a sudden, Aimi heard a faint, yet commanding voice in her head. '_I'm sorry for the pain I must cause, but in order to appear in front of you, it is necessary._' The voice sounded gruff, like that of a tiger's would, yet kind and gentle, like a peaceful lion. Then again it sounded lonely, like a wolf's. She wasn't sure which one, but all of a sudden, her right hand felt warm.

'_Who are you?_' she asked the voice.

'_Once you figure out your true heritage, you will know._'

'_But I'm Kurama's sister...and he has a fox demon inside of him_—' she was cut off.

'_You are not Kurama's true sister._' For some reason, these words rang the longest and strongest in her mind. '_You were adopted when you were small, but I have watched over you since you were conceived._'

'_But...who ARE you?_' she asked, pleaded more like it. But all of a sudden, she heard Hiei and Kurama's voice, but faint as if through water:

"_Aimi ? Aimi !_" They sounded desperate. The warmth in her right hand grew stronger. She wanted to see this 'guardian', when and if it came. Her eyelids slowly opened to see Kurama holding her up on his lap and Hiei kneeling next to him. Everyone else looked concerned and worried.

"Hey, guys," she managed, and then looked down at her hand. The warmth was still there, but her hand didn't look any different. Then all of a sudden, the heat started increasing again, and her hand started to grown slightly orange-ish red. She then retorted to her normal self, "Geez guys, Give me some space would you!"

"You idiot! We were all worried...about..." Hiei trailed off, looking at her hand, and not wanting to admit that he too, had been worried.

All of a sudden, a flame came from the middle of her palm, and grew and grew, then flew up into the air, separating itself from her hand, then started taking the shape of a figure.

"What the hell is that?" screamed Yusuke over the roar of the flames.

From the flames slowly and gracefully flew a dragon. It had sapphire blue scales with red streaks of scales on the top, left, and right of his body. He had flaming red eyes, and his body length probably reached around 20 feet. He coiled his body slightly, and floated in front of the group. He scanned over all of them, but stopped on Aimi .

From the flames slowly and gracefully flew a dragon. It had sapphire blue scales with red streaks of scales on the top, left, and right of his body. He had flaming red eyes, and his body length probably reached around 20 feet. He coiled his body slightly, and floated in front of the group. He scanned over all of them, but stopped on Aimi .

'_Hello, young Aimi ,_' he said in the same mysterious voice he had used in her head.

'_Are you my guardian?_' she asked, completely mystified, as well as everyone else.

'_Yes, but you must leave here quickly. There are demons coming after you._'

'_What!_'

"Aimi ," Kurama said urgently, "I am sorry, I had hoped this day would never come…"

"Huh!" Aimi was seriously confused now, and was feeling dizzy. Kurama sensed this and decided to carry her on his back. Aimi silently passed out, just as Hiei whipped around to slice a pouncing demon with his sword.


	4. You have got to be kidding me

When Aimi came to, she slowly opened her eyes. Everything was fuzzy. '_Must've hit my head or something..._' she thought, thinking about the fact that everything was fuzzy because of a painful bump on her head. She used her mind's eye to find out what time it was. ' _9:30 pm? Dang, I slept a while..._' She then suddenly remembered 10:30's events, and sat bolt upright, feeling a sharp pain in her right side. The winced, then looked down. Her whole torso was bandaged, but she could tell that she had a large gash and bruise on her right side. '_How the hell did that happen?_' She looked around, noticing a chance to take in her surroundings. Her eyes bulged with fear.

She was lying in a bed with pink sheets and red hearts. The room's walls were a hot pink color, and just about everything _else_ in the room...was PINK. "AAAAAHHHHH!" she screamed, leaping painfully out of the bed and dashing over into a corner of the room. She screamed again and Kayko came bursting into the room.

"What's wrong, Aimi ?" she concernedly asked.

"It's...it's...it's..." she stuttered, not being able to get the words out.

"Oh dear," said Kurama, poking his head through the door and getting a look at the room. "This isn't good..."

"Hey you!" Kayko yelled, attempting to push Kurama out the door, "out of my room! This is a girl's only room!"

"But Aimi 's...well, let's just say that she doesn't much like pink."

"Huh?"

"Kurama-san!" wailed Aimi , still frightened and jumping towards him, "It's so scary! Take it away!"

"What's wrong with her?" asked a totally confused Kayko.

"When she was small, out parents decorated her room pink, and ever since, for some strange reason, she's always despised the color; to the point of...well...this," he explained, motioning to her shocked and afraid expression.

"That's kinda sad when you think about it..." said Kayko.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it, so it's life," he said, leading Aimi downstairs.

They were obviously in Kayko's house, but how they got there—and why they got there, for that matter—was still unknown to Aimi . "Uhhh," muttered Aimi once Kurama had sat her in a chair in the living room downstairs where everyone else was sitting, except for Hiei who was leaning against the wall closest to the door, "what exactly _happened_ while I was passed out?"

"Hiei, you were the one most involved with everything; why don't you explain?"

"Me?" he said indignantly, "Why _me_? _You_ were the one with her the whole time!"

"Ah, but _you_ were the one who protected her the whole time," said Kurama, almost sneering. Hiei seethed with anger

There was an awkward silence in the room, then Hiei blushed very slightly and muttered, "_Damn_ you, Kurama. Fine then, I'll tell you all while you're here...

"When Aimi passed out, I guarded Kurama and her from an onslaught of demons that were trying to get them—or should I say _you_," he said, staring directly into Aimi 's eyes. For the first time, she noticed that he had glinting, almost _ruby_ red eyes. She blushed slightly, and then Hiei continued. "When the onslaught slowed, Kurama and I decided to find shelter; otherwise they would just come again. We didn't go far so that we could still reach his house in case we needed to. Apparently, when we got here, we noticed that Aimi had gashed her side on something, so we wrapped it up, told everyone to come over here, and then put her in Kayko's bed. Any questions?"

Kuwabara raised his hand. Hiei rolled his eyes and said, glaring at Kuwabara, "What fool?"

'_I'm not a fool, damn it!_' Aimi heard Kuwabara think. He then calmed down and took a breath, asking, "Why the hell were those demons after Aimi _anyway_?"

"I'll take it from here," Kurama said, noticing Hiei's confused and surprised expression.

'_He actually thought of a question worth asking..._' Aimi could hear Hiei thought-speak.

'_His mind's guard is down today..._' thought Aimi , '_Wonder why..._'

"The reason the demons were after Aimi ," announced Kurama, bringing Aimi back from the thought of the surrounding people, "was because Aimi isn't _really_ my sister."

"What!" yelled Aimi , Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Hiei in surprise. Especially loud was Aimi, not wanting to believe what her _guardian_ had told her.

"We adopted her when she was small. More like took her in. You see, one day when I was walking, I found her lying in the field next to the school, and ran home and told my mother. She told me to go get her and take her home, which I did. We named her Aimi because it can be roughly translated into either fire _or_ water, and we instantly realized that she was both, or rather _I_ did, I Begged my mother, and she let me name the girl that I would for years to come, call my sister.. So her name literally means 'water fire'. Another reason we named her that is because I could sense her parents in her."

Aimi was confused. '_I was adopted...? I had different parents...? I always thought that I was really Kurama's blood sister..._' Kurama sensed this and mentally comforted her while continuing with the story.

"I could tell that her father was a fire demon, and her mother half water demon." The whole room gasped. Now Aimi somewhat understood. '_No wonder I was always interested by fire...and why I'm such a good swimmer...I wonder if it also has something to do with the fact that I suck at climbing trees, cause I'm not part earth demon or something..._'

"Aimi ," said Kurama seriously, turning to her, "hold out your right hand, palm up, but clenched in a fist." She did so. "Now think of nothing but a small flame, big enough to fit into your hand. Think of nothing else, and just concentrate on that flame."

'_Flame, flame, flame..._' Aimi thought.

"Now," Kurama continued, when he could tell she was oblivious to anything else, "open your fist quickly and say, "'Hi'"

"Hi!" she shouted, opening her eyes to see what would happen. Suddenly, once she opened her fist, a small flame appeared there. She could feel its warm, but it didn't burn her skin, regardless of the fame touching it. Everyone stared. Even _Hiei_ seemed interested by now.

Kurama grinned. "Good, my hunch was right. Now, if this lucky streak continues, then you should be able to...okay. Now hold out your _left_ hand and do the same thing, but this time think of a small fountain of _water_ from your hand.

'_Water, water, water, water..._'

"Now open your fist again and say, 'Mizu!'"

"Mizu!" Suddenly a small fountain of water shot from her hand and went up about ½ a foot, then came back down, then went back up, then down; just like a real fountain. This one got 'Ooh's' and 'Aah's'. Aimi blushed slightly and clenched her fist again to make the water stop. She didn't like quite that much attention.

"So," Aimi heard Hiei mutter, "I was right. She isn't any normal human..."

"So now you see, Aimi ," said Kurama, "that you can control fire and water with a certain amount of practice. You can control small flames and waves, but it will take training to be able for you to control the sea or catch a building on fire, which I wouldn't let you do anyway," he quickly added, noting the excited expression on Aimi 's face at the mention of setting a building on fire. Her face fell when he corrected himself.

"Since my father was a _full_ fire demon and my mother _half_ water demon, that would make me ½ fire demon, ¼ water demon, and ¼ human, right?" inquired Aimi .

"Yes, it would," replied Kurama. "But you have to be careful. You are the first human/demon mix with all these abilities in this unique situation. _That_ was why the demons were after you. Someone must be controlling them to capture you."

"But why would anyone want to capture me? It's not like if they marry me they'll get super-powers like the ones I have, is it?" Aimi laughed, then stopped when she saw Kurama's serious face. "You're joking, right?" she asked—more like pleaded.

"I'm afraid not," said Kurama, shaking his head. "There will only be more demons—and even humans if they know of this power—after you for your power. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be even more careful than usual when you're alone."

"Well jeez, that kinda sucks. Are you saying I need a bodyguard like those stupid, ditsy American pop-stars? Ha! Give me a break!" she exploded.

"Actually, yes," replied Kurama in the same tone he was using before.

"Haha!" she laughed, still joking around, not taking anything with seriousness. then continued to say, "And what? You're going to have Hiei be my bodyguard, right? Haha! That'd be hilarious..." she trailed off, trying to think of the most hilarious person for that situation, yes, it would in fact be Hiei, but then again she was noticing Kurama's expression.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Hiei will now be like your protector as of now. He'll go with you everywhere."

"What!" Hiei and Aimi screamed. Obviously Hiei hadn't been expecting this.

"Even to the bathroom! And what about when I take a shower...ew..." she shivered. "And also, he looks so much like a stalker already, with his Goth look and everything..."

"Do you think that I _seriously_ want to go with _you_ everywhere!" asked Hiei to Aimi . "I mean, sure Yusuke might be happy to be your bodyguard but," he said, turning to Kurama and roaring, "WHY ME!"

"Because you both somewhat understand each other, since you're both part fire demon. And also, just because she's adopted doesn't mean I don't care for my little sister. I don't trust Yusuke or Kuwabara because they might molest her, and I don't want to take that chance."

Aimi laughed as Yusuke yelled, "_Damn_, Kurama! Way to spoil all the fun, I almost had her melting in my palm!"

She threw him the most disgusted face she could muster and rolled her eyes. "No, not really," Aimi said after finishing laughing. "I never liked you in the first place! "

"_Anyway_," Kurama said gaining control over the group again, "I also trust Hiei with my life, so I'll trust him with my sister's as well. Good luck with that, Hiei."

Hiei growled and teleported away. Aimi tried to find his mind to find out where he went, but Hiei had remembered this time to block her out. '_Fine, be like that, new bodyguard,_' she mocked as she thought-messaged him, putting major emphasis on 'bodyguard'. What was really bothering her, though was, why could Kurama just do it himself? Although, it would probably be _very_ easy for demons to find her if it was her own brother that was constantly with her. Duh. But still……ARG.

'_Grrrrrrr,_' she heard him reply. She laughed and went up to Kayko's room.

She changed the room's color in her mind by just thinking that it was black, blue, and silver, her favorite colors, and she also imagined that instead of hearts on the sheets of the bed, there were dragons. When she opened her eyes, the room was as it was in her mind. Kayko would kill her if she just left it like this, so she decided she'd change it back later. All the information Kurama told her made her head spin, and her side was hurting like hell, so she decided to go to bed.

Right before she fell asleep, she messaged Hiei again saying, '_Yo, I'm goin' to sleep now, so you might as well hang around the house to protect me, bodyguard._'

"I am," Hiei said out loud, suddenly standing next to her bed. Aimi jumped at the sound and opened her eyes quickly to see him.

"You don't have to be in the room, just in the vicinity," she said angrily. She was somewhat uncomfortable sleeping in the same room that Hiei was in.

Hiei smirked at her, then teleported to the window seat. "Heh, no way. If I have a chance to torment you, then I'll take every chance I get."

"Damn you," she said, angrily again. Inside she was actually happy thought that of all people, Hiei-kun was watching over her. She opened her mind to let him know that without actually having to tell him. She could tell he twitched in either annoyance or he had an itch, but she could see in the bright moonlight reflecting off his face that he was blushing ever so slightly.

Aimi fell asleep with a smile on her face.

When Hiei sensed that she was asleep, he walked over to her and pulled the covers up on her and put an extra blanket on her. He looked at her for a few minutes, then went back over to the window seat and stared out the window, his face scowling, but a medium shade of pink.


	5. You lose

Aimi woke up slowly; opening her eyes sluggishly. She wasn't a morning person, if it wasn't obvious yet. When she'd woken up, she turned her head towards the window seat and immediately sat up. Hiei was missing. "What the..." she said, before hearing something downstairs. She got up and changed out of her black flannel pants and dark orange t-shirt that served as her pajamas into baggy black jeans and a semi-tight dark blue t-shirt that said 'We can't all be morning people...' on it. She put her shark tooth necklace and a blue and white bracelet her friend had made for her on, then as a final touch, dashed on a tad of smoky grey eyeliner. She quickly brushed her hair and walked downstairs.

"Yo!" she called out to downstairs. "Anyone here?" She heard something like swords clashing outside and went to the backdoor. She peeked out the crack in the blue curtains and saw that Kuwabara, Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei were all outside. Hiei and Kuwabara were having a sword fight, but Kuwabara was fighting with his Spirit Sword. '_So the idiot has talent, eh?_' she thought. Hiei glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw her. He knocked Kuwabara down, almost breaking a sweat.

"Heh," he muttered, "I win."

"Damn you, Shorty!" yelled Kuwabara, nursing his back, which he fallen flat on when he fell over.

"Hmm," Kurama observed. "He's getting better. You're almost panting, Hiei."

"Tch," Hiei replied. "He is _not_ getting better. _She_," he said, pointing as Aimi 's innocent face peeking through the screen door, "distracted me. She threw me off guard, so I wasn't prepared to knock this fool over." He said the last part ignoring Kuwabara's growl.

Aimi made herself better known by walking out of the door and into the open, squinting at the bright sunlight. "Well ex_cuse_ me for distracting you."

"I'm not arguing with you today."

"What!" Hiei was acting strange. '_Not arguing with me today?_' she thought quickly and guarded from Hiei, '_What's wrong with him? Has he gotten fed up with arguing already?_'

"Yes I have. And I've also gotten better at reading your mind. You're not guarding well this morning. I guess your shirt speaks the truth," he said, smirking. _What a pervert_ thought Aimi in her mind, jokingly of course

Aimi ignored him and turned to Yusuke. "What're you doing?"

"We're just having skirmishes. Ya know, practicing."

"For what?"

"For...well...the next demon that might attack. Especially with that whole thing about them trying to get at your power now. We need to stay in tip top shape."

"Mind if I join?"

"You?" he said, laughing. "We'd cream you!" Aimi punched him in his arm.

"I'd take that bet"

"Fine. You can fight Kuwabara."

"Kuwabara! But he's the weakest out all of you!"

"Hey!" Kuwabara exclaimed, obviously offended

"It's either him or nothing."

Aimi growled, then went over to the makeshift battlefield. '_I'll make this quick to show them my speed..._' she thought to herself, getting into a fighting stance. '_I'll win this one without my powers, maybe my karate lessons paid off..._' Recently she'd been attending karate lessons; she'd started about three months ago, and she was pretty good.

Kuwabara got into a completely different stance. He smirked and said, "I'm sorry, I don't normally fight girls, but Genkai has taught us that a fighter is a fighter, if they stand in your way of making things right. I'm sorry if I hurt you"

"Don't be, because I generally don't fight girls like you either" Kuwabara growled, but couldn't retort do to the fact as he was still fuming about how that conversationg went wrong.

"Ready!" yelled Kurama, apparently playing the judge, "Set...GO!"

Aimi charged at Kuwabara, lunging low so she could get at his stomach, but right before her right fist made contact, Kuwabara grabbed it and swung her around his head a few times before slamming her into the ground. Aimi had the wind knocked out of her for a moment, then recovered, hopping from foot to foot to warm herself up.

"You all right?" asked Kuwabara, somewhat concerned. "Didn't mean to go that hard..."

"That was perfect," she said, spitting out a bit of blood that she had in her mouth, "I was just warming up."

She lunged again, but this time high and dodging his grabbing hand this time and managed to land a fist on his gut, but he threw her ten feet away when she'd barely made contact. "Damn!" she yelled in frustration after slowly getting up.

"And you thought you could take _us_ on?" Yusuke asked, motioning to Kurama, Hiei, and himself. She growled as Yusuke mocked her.

"_Don't mock me!" _ she roared before concentrating on the fight once again. She didn't lunge or jump or anything this time; she was going on the defensive this round. Kuwabara immediately jumped high in the air and attempted to crash down on her, but she jumped out of the way just in time, and Kuwabara crashed to the ground, nearly breaking his arm.

"Damn!" Aimi heard Kuwabara mutter with gritted teeth. She smirked and got into a defensive position again, waiting for him to make his move. He slowly got up, cradling his left arm.

"Did he break it?" Yusuke asked to Kurama.

"No...but he came close. He won't be able to use that attack again. At least not in _this_ battle."

'_So he can't attack with that anymore? Good, that was hard for me to dodge, and I nearly lost my footing..._' Aimi was thinking to herself, as Kuwabara was getting ready.

Kuwabara dashed at her and she held her arms defensively. He let loose an onslaught of punches, but she withstood them all...barely. When he stopped for a moment, she ducked down and kicked at his ankles, causing him to fall over, hurting his back. She jumped on him one last time to make sure he was down and left one foot on his chest, but her weight on her other foot.

When he only grunted in pain, but stayed down, she grinned. "See?" she said to the others, "It wasn't finished, but now it is." She observed the remaining challengers, Hiei, Kurama and Yusuke. "Now," she said, pointing a triumphant finger at Hiei, "I wanna fight _you_!"

Hiei pointed blankly to himself. "Me? You don't stand a chance" he scoffed

"'Cause I wanna try fighting you. Plus, your aura's _much_ more interesting that _his_.", nodding towards the ex-spirit detective, she had already faught Kurama numerous times.

"Hey!" yelled Yusuke in defiance.

"Shut yer trap," Aimi said, glaring at him, then turning back to Hiei. "Well, do you agree to my challenge or no?"

"I'll fight you," he replied lazily.

'_Thank God he didn't do his 'I won't go easy on you' thing that Kuwabara did. I HATE it when people underestimate me like that!_' Aimi thought, walking over to the makeshift battlefield. Sure, she'd barely won her match with Kuwabara, but like she'd said, she was just getting warmed up.

"Be ready," Hiei said, drawing his sword. Aimi could tell he was holding back.

"Don't go easy on me!" she yelled, snarling like an enraged lion.

Hiei blinked in surprise, then laughed. "I wasn't planning on it." She sensed his held back behavior lift.

'_Good,_' she thought. '_I want this to be a good, fair fight. I just hope I don't make a fool of myself..._' she grimaced at the thought

She held up her hands defensively. Hiei crouched slightly, then disappeared. Aimi blinked and looked right, left, down, then up. She saw him flying high in the air; sword pointed down. She rolled out of the way, but the sword had nipped her right shoulder.

"Dang," she muttered under her breath, holding her shoulder.

She lunged at him before he had time to recover, but he disappeared again. '_Alright,_' she thought, '_He's a little faster than me._ She paused, realizing her stupidity, Hiei smiled, but Aimi still didn't realize that he was listening to her or her cheeks would have gone scarlet pink. _Okay, much faster than me, but I can still win this...if I can only—_' Her thoughts were cut off by the hilt of a sword being slammed into her back. She had the air knocked out of her and she fell flat on her face, still too surprised to move, but not feeling the pain

She got up quickly and got into a defensive position. She saw Hiei standing holding his sword loosely. "Your guard is weak," he said sneeringly. Aimi growled and stood her ground in her defensive position. Hiei disappeared and Aimi looked everywhere around her, finding nothing. Aimi suddenly heard an icy voice in her ear. "You lose." She then felt a light tap on the back of her head and blinked a few times, confused at the weird sensation, then blacked out.


	6. Good job, little one

Aimi came to hearing some scraping noise. She opened her eyes and found herself in a black room. She looked around and saw that there were the familiar blue dragon and silver wolf on her walls and she calmed down. Apparently her house was safe again, allowing her to come back. She sighed in relief that she hadn't been blinded by bright pink walls like in Keiko's house. She looked around, trying to find the source of the scraping sound and found Hiei sharpening his sword in her black beanbag chair next to the window. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get a window seat, but her humongous bean bag chair just about made up for it. Hiei looked up from his sharpening when she woke.

"Hn," he quietly muttered, looking away. Aimi knew that in Hiei language, it was his way of saying, "I'm sorry"

Aimi was surprised. "What for? Why should you be sorry—" Then she remembered yesterday. "Well...it was my fault. I let my guard down. It wasn't yours!"

"I didn't even use my sword and I still could have killed you, just as a distraction did I use it, a dirty trick. But you are weak." Translation :_I'm sorry for tricking you and using dirty, Kuwabara like tricks to fight you because I felt threatened_, but Aimi knew he would never say this aloud, it just wasn't Hiei's nature. But for now this was good enough.

Aimi was silent for a minute, and then got up. She was still in her outfit from yesterday. She looked at the clock and saw that it was only 3 A.M. She shrugged in her mind and went downstairs to her computer. It didn't work. She smelled a slight smell of booze on the keys of her desktop's keyboard. "Yusuke..." she growled, then stomped upstairs. She was still slightly mad at herself for letting Hiei beat her. '_Kurama must be worse than Hiei, otherwise I would've beaten him...I think..._' she thought, walking towards the guest room in which she thought Yusuke was in. He was. She walked over to his futon and knelt beside him.

'_What should I do..._' she thought, going through a mental list of silent tortures she could make Yusuke endure in her sleep. She'd been reading his mind, and found out that some of the guys had a party last night and they'd spilled booze on her keyboard, and after a moment of staring horrorstruck at it, ignored it altogether. '_Maybe I should just make him pay two times the amount for a new one...Ahah!_'

She quickly ran and got a bucket of warm water. She ran back and dipped Yusuke's left hand into it, smiling at the puddle that appeared halfway down the sheet. She quietly laughed evilly, then snuck back out and back into her room, still snickering.

She sat down outside the doorway to his room so he couldn't see her, but she could hear him. She heard a stirring, then a growl of, "What the..." She grinned wide...like the Cheshire cat.

"AIMI IIIIIII!"

She burst out laughing, rolling on the floor to stop herself from falling over. Yusuke almost tripped over her in his hurry to kill her. He glared at her and hollered, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO, AIMI ?"

She couldn't hear him over her bouts of laughter. He kicked her hard in her side, bringing her to her senses. "Ow..." she muttered, but didn't yell back, knowing she deserved it.

"What...did...you...DO?" he shouted angrily. Hiei had come to her doorway now, watching the act from the safety of her room.

"Oh...just the trick of your hand in the water," she said, still grinning like an evil cat.

Yusuke raised his fist, about to give Aimi what was proper, but Kurama appeared out of nowhere between them and held Yusuke's hand back.

"Kurama!" yelled an annoyed Yusuke, "I was about to...uh..._discipline_ your sister. Or do _you_ want to do it?"

"You won't be doing _any_ fighting inside my household," Kurama growled, with unusually cold eyes glaring into Yusuke's. Yusuke shrunk back and lowered his fist. "Now," started Kurama, "apologize. Both of you."

"I'm sorry," Aimi said politely, bowing like she'd done nothing at all.

"Why you—" started Yusuke, but bent over into a bow (even though it was Kurama pushing hard on his back that made him bend over) and muttered, "_Fine_ then, sorry."

"Okay, now why did you do that trick to Yusuke, Aimi ?" asked Kurama, then peacemaker between the two.

"He and his jerk-off friends spilled booze on my laptop!" she yelled, the fire she'd had while arguing returning and coloring her eyes a greenish red.

"It's not _our_ fault it was lying there out in the open!"

"Hello? The sign on the front of the door says, 'No entry, _Computer room!_'" she yelled back.

Yusuke flinched. He wasn't expecting her to have brought that up, even though it related directly to their feud. "Uh..." he said unsurely.

"Yusuke, did you do this? Did you bring booze into the house while knowing it's against the rules?" asked Kurama.

'_Yes, yes, YES! He's SO getting what he deserves!_' thought Aimi joyfully.

Yusuke hung his head and muttered, "Yes..."

"Can you fix computers?"

"I can't even pass all my classes in school! You think I could fix a computer!"

"It's okay, Kurama," Aimi said, "I just wanted to see him squirm under your grilling eyes. I can fix it. I was blowing it all out of proportion." She turned to Yusuke and said, "Yusuke, I deserve a good slap, what I did was sooo uncalled for.. Please do the honors." She pretended to pout.

Yusuke grinned and said, "with pleasure" He was about to punch her, and Kurama was about to stop him, but right before he made contact, Aimi dodged and ran out the back door as fast as she could. Today wasn't the day Aimi would get knocked out by Yusuke Urameshi. As Hiei, Kurama and Yusuke all glared at her retreating form.

She took a breath of fresh air and flopped down on the grass. Suddenly her right arm burned. The same commanding voice that spoke to her the last time she was in this state talked to her again. '_Aimi , get up._'

'_Wh...why?_' muttered Aimi , grunting through the pain. '_Are they..._'

'_Yes, they're coming for you again._'

'_Why?_'

'_You know the answer,_' he scolded, but sounded concerned as well. '_Now get up! They're almost—_' but her guardian didn't get to finish before a tall, pale boy appeared out of nowhere and walked over next to where Aimi was lying.

'_Guardian? Guardian! Why aren't you talking anymore?_' Aimi cried out desperately in her mind, but to no avail. The boy smirked, flicking his purple hair out of his eyes.

"Are you the one they call Aimi ?" the boy asked with his soft, kindly voice. He smiled reassuringly enough, but Aimi was still worried. She tried to get up to talk to him face to face, but found herself bound to the ground by some invisible net.

'_Darn it!_' she yelled at herself, '_You let your guard down, idiot! Baka baka baka!_' "W-why?" she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking as much as possible.

"Oh, no reason, he said, turning his back to her abruptly. She could feel the 'net' lift, and immediately jumped up. Her right arm burned, and she looked down and saw a small flame, and in the flame, she saw an image. The image showed Hiei trying to get out the back door, but it had been permanently sealed. She looked at the back door, and sure enough, Hiei was standing there, banging on the glass, even though she couldn't hear or sense a thing.

The boy turned his head to look at her again, and smirked in his kind, yet evil way. I see you've realized that this backyard's been covered with a shield, correct? You don't seem like the smartest one though, so I wouldn't blame you if you couldn't figure it out. Looks like your little _bodyguard_ can't protect you. Maybe you should get RID of hi—"

Aimi dashed over to him as quick as she could and held him by the front of his shirt and raised him a few inches off the ground. With blood red eyes, she growled, "Don't _ever_ talk like that about my friends. Not Yusuke, not Kuwabara! And _especially_," she levitated, lifting both of them a little higher, eventually where they were three feet off the ground, "NOT_ Him_!" And with that, she threw the boy to the ground with a satisfying crash. She fell almost as quickly and landed shakily on her feet. She was shuddering all over—she hadn't used that much power for a while. The boy stood up calmly and brushed himself off.

"Were you expecting that to _hurt_¸ Aimi -chan?" he said, sickly-sweetly.

"Don't call me that!" she hollered before leaping at him aerially. Right when she nearly made contact, he held up his and hand and held her where she was flying at him. She fell to the ground and he put his foot on her head, pushing on it slightly.

"Now that isn't any way to treat your husband-to-be, now is it, my dear?"

"Excuse me!?!?" she screamed, pissed mad, and pushed up as hard as she could, but only ending up in the same state as before.

"Yes; _husband_," he said, leaning as far down to her ear as he could without letting up with his foot. "You _will_ marry me to save your little friends' lives, won't you?"

Aimi looked frantically with crazed eyes at the back door again and saw Kurama on the floor, cringing. Hiei was on one knee, obviously in pain. Aimi 's anger flared and she pushed off the boy, finally. He stumbled back and regained his balance again.

"Heh. You're a fairly worthy opponent. My name's Hoshiro."

"I...will...NEVER marry you!" Aimi cried after regaining her breath. Her right arm burned again and she grasped it painfully.

'_Aimi ...hold out your hand towards Hoshiro._'

'_Ung,_' she grunted in pain, '_oh...okay..._' She held out her hand and asked quickly, '_What now?_'

'_Utter the phrase, 'People of the flames, dance!'_'

"People of the flames...DANCE!" she yelled. A giant blue flame burst forth from her right arm and leapt immediately towards Hoshiro. He screamed and was engulfed in the flames.

After he'd been incinerated, Aimi 's knees buckled and she collapsed. She held tight to what little consciousness she had and take a raspy breath.

'_Good job, little one,_' her guardian said.

She smiled inwardly and slowly closed her lids, feeling warm all over her body rather than just her arm. Someone was holding her, and it wasn't Kurama, but she had a pretty good idea as to who it was. She relaxed in the comfort and lost consciousness.


	7. but only almost

Aimi opened her eyes suddenly and grasped her right arm. It was burning again. '_What...what is it now, Guardian?_' she asked.

'_I want to talk._'

'_Talk!_'

'_Yes, talk. I'm sure you have questions for me that need answering._'

Aimi thought for a moment, then asked, '_Okay. Why does it hurt my arm so much when you come to my mind?_'

'_I'm always in your mind, but causing your arm to feel pain is the only way the small part of your brain that notices me is put to the front of your mind; this causes you to realize I'm speaking to you._'

Aimi was silent for a bit, then replied with, '_Oh. I think I understand a little better now..._'

'_If you summon me, it won't hurt as much for us to speak._'

'_How do I summon you?_' Aimi asked, desperate for relief from the pain.

'_Just wish it. Imagine a form for me, then imagine I'm in front of you._'

'_All I have to do is wish you were in front of me?_'

'_Yes, and then it will be._'

Aimi smacked herself on the forehead for not thinking of this earlier. She quickly thought of an arm-length black dragon and imagined it was curled up on her chest (she's lying down). Slowly, the form of the black dragon appeared, first as a red flame, then changing into the dragon. Aimi 's eyes widened when the transformation was complete. '_It's...it's that easy?_'

"Yes," the dragon said unexpectedly.

"Whoa! You can speak out loud when you're summoned into a form?"

"Wouldn't that be obvious?" the dragon replied with a sarcastic tone.

Aimi almost retorted, with her short temper, but calmed herself before she spoke again. "Okay. I have another question. Why is it that you can tell what's going on everywhere? Like when you warned me of coming danger, twice, and when you showed me that the others couldn't get out to me in the backyard...how do you _do_ that?"

"Simple. I watch. I observe. I listen."

"Yeah, and I do that too, but nothing happens for me!"

"That is because you are too unobservant."

Aimi was getting confused with the guardian's logic, so tried to change the topic. "What's your name, anyway? I can't just keep calling you _Guardian_, can I?"

"Call me what you wish, but my true name is Kantakar." When the guardian said 'Kantakar,' Aimi felt like a wave rushed over her. She blinked a few times, then took a deep breath and let it out. It felt like she was in the presence of an all-seeing and all-powerful being...

"Okay...Kantakar," she said, still not quite used to calling her guardian by name. Yet it all seemed slightly familiar somehow. Kantkar smiled at her slight confusion, and Aimi noticed. "Why do you take enjoyment in confusing me?" she asked, becoming greatly annoyed.

"It's just enjoyable to see how much you've grown over the years. Becoming confused shows that you're trying to pay attention. You used to completely ignore me. Remember that voice you heard by the ocean that fateful day?"

Aimi blinked and asked, "What fateful day?"

Kantakar sighed and said, "You know what I'm talking about, little one."

"No I d—" she started, and then suddenly remembered what he was talking about. The memory seemed so fresh in her mind, even though it had happened around 10 years ago. It brought fear to her heart to remember what had happened.

Kurama, Aimi , and their mother had been visiting California then because their mother had gotten a temporary job there. She couldn't remember what it was, but it had something to do with a boat far, far out on the ocean. She'd been looking down into the clear blue water, leaning out far over the railing. She remembered someone yelling something to her in English, but she couldn't understand what the person had said, and she would not have listened if she could understand. She was a carefree spirit. She'd leaned too far out...and she remembered her mother and Kurama, or Shuichi's, cries of, "Stop, Aimi -chan!" and, "You're leaning too far out!" She hadn't listened, though. She fell, but didn't know how to swim. She struggled to stay above the water, but eventually fell prey to what was the ocean. She held her breath as long as she could, but a five-year-old (or somewhere around that age) couldn't hold her breath all that long, so she blacked out. While she was blacked out, she remembered a voice speaking to her. As she remembered, it sounded uncannily like Kantakar.

'_Aimi ..._' it had said, '_Move your arms down quickly and up slowly. Try to get to the surface._'

'_Who in the world…!_' she had thought, '_Like heck I will! Who are you!_

'_No, I'm not. I'm trying to SAVE you—_' Kantakar had tried to say, but Aimi shut out her mind to his desperate cries to save her. She sunk deeper and deeper, her heart nearly loosing its ability to beat. She then remembered a man with long, flowing silver hair floating down from the darkness of her consciousness.

'_Speak,_' the man had said.

She tried to say, '_Momma..._' and went into complete darkness.

When she awoke, she was on the boat again, surrounded by a group of people. Her mother and Shuichi were the ones closest to her. "Momma...Shuichi-kun..." she said, before going limp in her mother's arms. She was still conscious, but her body lost all its strength. It was all she could do to hold onto consciousness.

"It's okay, honey. You can sleep now," her mother said with a tired smile. Aimi smiled back and happily passed into sleep.

Kantakar brought Aimi back from memory lane by lightly nipping her on the hand. "So you do remember, Aimi ?"

"Yes..." she said, still in a dream-like state.

"You didn't exactly ignore me, but you ignored my advice."

"Yeah," she said, coming back to reality, "I guess that's more accurate."

"Have you had enough remembering painful memories?" Aimi swore she could have heard a note of serious concern in Kantakar's voice.

"No...why?"

"I was just making sure that I don't overload you with too much pain."

"Ooookaaay..." She looked around the room. "Where are the others? I thought for sure that I'd wake up to Botan cheering with joy and Hiei being antisocial by the window."

"They're outside about to surprise you when they can tell you've regained consciousness."

"Then why didn't they come in earlier?"

"I didn't want them listening in on our conversation, so I paused time. Everyone around us—" Kantakar started, but paused. He whipped his sleek black scaled head around and stared right into the crimson eyes of Hiei. He looked startled for a moment, then regained his calm composure and asked, "How did you get past my time barrier, Hiei?"

"It was simple. I just slipped through the crack," he said, motioning to a slight slit, it looked like, in the wall.

"How did that...?"

"I made it," Hiei stated simply.

"With what?" asked Kantakar, obviously bewildered.

"This," he said, holding up his sword.

"How could you...with a simple sword...?" Aimi stifled laughter from Kantakar's confusion. He was obviously a part of her. He was just as easily as confused as she was.

"Hn. I've had practice," was his simple reply.

"You're got this all wrong! Swords, even like yours, aren't SUPPOSED to be able to cut through those fields! There must be someone around with—"

"This?" asked a man. His long black hair floated around him in the gentle breeze from outside the window. He held out a purple-blue box that swirled the two colors together, never stopping with the swirling. He wore a peasant's clothes, dull green and gray, but his elegant crystal blue eyes examined the room, an air of royalty about him.

Kantakar gasped, staring at the cube. "You have an..."

"An energy-sapping cube? Yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm amazed you couldn't tell that your energy was slowly being stolen and put into this box. I weakened you so much, Kantakar," he said, staring directly into the small dragon's burning orange eyes, "that Hiei could easily slice through the field and come through the time-stop." He looked at the door and moaned on in his whiny voice saying, "Even the space outside the field is slowly going on. It's not completely paused, but for every minute that goes by in here, one second goes by out there." He laughed a dry, heartless laugh, then continued saying, "You should hurry and get yourselves ready. They'll be slowly bursting in any second."

Aimi glared at the man's eyes, seeing he obviously had no heart. '_A demon..._' she thought, '_What's he after? Please don't be me this time..._'

'_I hate to say it,_' Hiei thought to her, '_but he's after your power. These people can get so troublesome..._'

'_Hey, try being the one they're after!_'

'_Calm down, Aimi . While he thinks he's unnerving even me, we need to stay calm to think of a plan,_' Kantakar said to the two of them.

'_What kind of a plan? The others are going to be in here any minute with the field not working as we thought it would,_' Aimi stated.

'_I'm not sure, but I know we need to think of a plan._'

'_Oh, that's bright,_' Aimi thought only to herself. '_Okay, I still need to know what kind of plan._'

Kantakar was silent for a moment, then said, '_Aimi , I'm going to need to use you as a distraction._'

'_What! What if I don't WANT to be a distraction!_'

'_Do you want to get out of here alive?_'

'_...Yes..._'

'_Then Hiei will help you be a distraction._'

'_Why am I suddenly being pulled into this?_' Hiei asked.

'_Because I'm going to need all the help I can get to distract this man._'

'_Hmm...I don't normally help people, but Kurama would never forgive me if I let his brat die.,_' Hiei thought. Aimi decided to ignore the cruel dig at her character.

'_If he's in, and helping me, then I'm in too,_' thought Aimi .

'_Good,_' Kantakar thought to the two of them, '_now we can begin._'

'_What is the plan?_' asked an annoyed Hiei at the constant repeating of this whole conversation.

'_You two are going to run around screaming your heads off while I prepare a spell to get that box from him and release all the energy from it._'

'_That sounds too simple. What's the catch?_' asked Hiei.

'_There is no catch. The only thing is that he'll probably figure out what I'm going to do too early on. I won't have enough time to complete the spell. You two, if he looks at me and realizes what I'm doing, jump out the window and pull him down, if you can. Try and get to him as soon as possible, and put all your weight on him. Think you can do it?_'

'_I know I can do it,_' muttered Hiei.

'_I think I can, I think I can,_' Aimi said, imitating the little blue engine, laughing at her own stupidity

'_All right. Ready on my mark?_'

'_Ready,_' the two others said in unison.

'_GO!_' shouted Kantakar into their heads. Aimi shivered at the deepness of Kan's voice, but trembled also at the thought that this beast had always been inside her.

Aimi dashed out of the bed to the left side of the room, gripping onto her arm which was still in pain from the burning when Kantakar was summoned. Hiei dashed to the right. All the while, Aimi was squealing as high-pitched as she could and Hiei was almost growling a yell, him not being the one to normally make any sound at all, much less a yell. Kantakar hardly took time to appreciate their work before he started muttering something in a language that sounded like a mix between English and Hebrew. The man immediately noticed this, and tried to reach Kantakar to stop his spell-muttering. Aimi and Hiei noticed this, and dashed for him, pushing him out the window and holding on to his sparse clothing, pulling him down Aimi tried not to hold on to Hiei to tightly, for fear of what she would look like, and what it would make him think. He struggled to stay up, but couldn't. He plummeted to the ground, which was five stories below. Aimi was startled when she saw the ground rising so quickly, and hung on to the man's clothing as tight as she could, hoping he would rise at the last minute to save himself. He didn't. The three of them crashed into the ground.

Hiei rose first. He'd created a quick burst of spirit energy at the last minute, so he had only scratched his knee up a small amount. "Aimi ," he muttered. Aimi groaned, trying to pull herself up. It pained her to do so.

"Hiei...over here..." was all she was able to say before falling back to the ground. Hiei stumbled over to broken chunks of cement to reach her, then dug her out of the ground, which had been broken from the fall of the threesome.

He sat her up and tilted her face up slightly. "Aimi , are you all right?" he asked, hiding his concern.

"Yeah..." she muttered, then her head went limp.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, not sure she understood what he meant.

"Yeah...I just can't...quite...hold my head up..."

Hiei held in a slight laugh and said, "Are you going to be able to move later on?"

"Yeah...just...give me some time..."

"Should we go back up to the hospital room?"

"Not a chance."

Hiei ignored her and rolled his eyes, "You're going"

"Fine, My heart hurts, anyway. Kantakar's telling me that when we separate too far from each other, it pains me. Please...take me there quickly." Hiei nodded and jumped swiftly up to the window. "Why didn't you just jump like that in the first place?" asked a tired Aimi , slowly regaining her powers.

"We were falling. I didn't have any footing."

"Oh..." Aimi said, embracing Kantakar as he crawled into her arms.

"You two did well," Kantakar praised. "Did you retrieve the box?"

"Oops..." muttered Aimi .

"I'll get it.,". He said before jumping out of the window. once again rolling his eyes

Aimi and Kantakar looked over the windowsill to watch and make sure nothing went wrong. For all they knew, the man could be at the bottom, waiting for someone to come and try to retrieve the box, then sneak up and attack them.

Hiei walked cautiously over to the man's body, not sure if it was a body or a corpse at this point, and quickly grabbed the box, then jumped back into the window.

"Now open the box," Kantakar instructed. Hiei did as he was asked. A great green light filled the room, causing Aimi and Kantakar to fill with energy. Aimi could hardly contain all the energy she was receiving at that moment. She started laughing. Whole-heartedly and care freely. Hiei started laughing as well. (A/N: Yes, very OOC, but bear with me, please!) He couldn't stop himself. Aimi 's carefree laughing, along with the sudden burst of energy from the box in his hands, caused emotions to come forth from Hiei. (A/N: -GASP-)

After the light dwindled, then faded, then went out completely, Kantakar asked Hiei to close the box. "If you leave it open, our energy will just be stolen again," he said.

"Hn," Hiei grunted before closing the box.

"So...is that the end of that?" asked Aimi , wanting all this to be over with.

"No. I should make sure that man is either dead, or disposed of," Hiei said before hopping out the window again. Aimi watched as usual, but noticed something was wrong. The man was twitching uncontrollably.

"What..." was all she had time to say before a mist surrounded the ground. It got so opaque that she couldn't see a thing on the ground. "Can we go down there? I want to help Hiei!" Aimi asked Kantakar.

"No, we shouldn't. It's another trap. He wants to lure us down there so that he can kill us in the confusion of the fog."

"Hmm..." Aimi said, obviously troubled by this news. "But...he might just kill Hiei because he know it would draw us down there!"

"You know in your heart that Hiei will not loose this battle."

As _In your _heart ran heavily in her ears, Aimi was silent for a moment, then grunted, "Yes, I do."

"Good. Then let's watch from up here."

"But we can't see anything! I thought we went over this!"

"Use your spirit energy. You should be able to see them just fine." Aimi was about to retort, but Kantakar glared back at her. "Just try it."

Aimi looked down at the ground, sending a quarter of her spirit energy to her eyes. '_Please...let me see Hiei and the other man in the fog!_' she pleaded with herself, hoping this would somehow work. Suddenly, when she looked at the fog, it looked like normal ground. She engaged a little more energy to see if she could zoom in, but it failed. '_At least I can see them from here..._' she thought again to herself.

Hiei obviously already figure the spirit energy to look through the fog trick already, but the man, who had engaged the fog in the first place, still hadn't figured it out. He hadn't thought about how he'd see his opponent apparently. Aimi chuckled at his obliviousness. Hiei saw the man almost instantly and snuck up behind him, thrusting his sword through his stomach. The man coughed up a small amount of blood, then fell to the ground. Hiei stabbed him in the back one more time, just to be sure he was dead, then summoned a small flame for a tiny cremation. He hopped back up into the window, greeted with Aimi 's cheers.

"Yay! Awesome, Hiei! That was great!" she almost hugged him….but only almost.

"Stop being a Botan," he said, blowing her off. Aimi stared at his back, near tears. Since when had he become so distant? Oh wait, he was always distant. When did he because so much more distant?

"Kan?" she asked Kantakar, "Can you go back inside me? I'm feeling slightly drained from having you out so much. Please don't get offended."

"It's all right, Aimi . I'll take down the time field when I go back inside you, though, so you have to be in non-unusual positions for when the others burst in." He looked at the door, seeing it already halfway open. "See? They're already on their way in here. You should hurry."

"Kay," Aimi said before dusting herself off, then got back into her bed. Hiei went back outside in the back of the group, like he'd never left. "Kan? How do I take you back in me again?"

"Just imagine me inside you, somehow." He noticed the odd expression on Aimi 's face and growled, "Not in THAT way, you perverted host of mine."

Aimi laughed and said, "So now I'm a host?"

Kantakar just growled and said, "Will you put me back already?"

"Fine," Aimi said through her laughter, then imagined Kantakar sleeping in a stick figure body of her.

Once he was safely 'put away,' the others burst through the door with cries of, "You're up!" and "Glad you're okay!" and "You sure got better fast!" Aimi smiled at all the excitement on everyone's faces, then shouted above them all, "I'm still tired. Can I sleep please?"

"But you just woke up!" Keiko complained.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm fully rested. Please leave now. I'll let you all know when I wake up again. I'll call you. You can go home if you want."

Botan crossed her arms and 'humph'ed. "Fine." Aimi looked sad when Botan did this, so she started laughing and said, "I was just joking, Aimi . I'm not really mad. It's just been odd without you around. We're really starting to get used to you."

Aimi smiled and said, "That's sweet. Now can you please go?"

"Sure," Yusuke said, and shooed them all out the door.

'_Too bad they won't have you around for much longer,_' said an icy cold voice—even colder than Hiei's.

Aimi whipped her tired head around, causing her to see stars. "Who are you? Where are you?" she asked the air.

The voice laughed a menacing laugh. "Muahahahahaaa! My name is Gurenai, and I am here to take you as my wife!" A tall man with short, choppy brown hair appeared out of nowhere, wearing a black high school boy uniform trimmed with a silver-blue color. He looked like a prince, but sounded more like a pauper who just won the lottery.

"Another one! Won't you demons ever quit!"

Hiei sensed something was wrong the room he had just left. He put his ear next to it when he was sure the rest of the group had left the building.

"Yes, I am here to take you as my wife! At first I was after just your power, but now that I see you, you're beautiful as well! An added bonus!"

'_I'm not beautiful…_' Aimi 's self-conscious side thought to herself. "So, what're you gonna do about it? Just take me here and now?"

"Hmmm…at first I was planning on sneaking up and grabbing you, but now that you mention it, that's not a bad idea!"

"Good job, Aimi , you just gave him a good idea. I applaud you," Hiei said, lightly clapping his hands while stalking into the room.

"Hiei! You aren't supposed to be proud of me for that!"

"I know, exactly why I'm applauding you."

Aimi glared after Hiei as he walked closer to the elegant figure in the middle of the room.

"What is your purpose here, demon?" Hiei asked Gurenai.

"To take Aimi -chan as my wife!" he said, striking a heroic pose with a burning flame in his dark black eyes. Hiei and Aimi rolled their eyes in unison

"Just get the hell out of here," Hiei said, drawing his sword and holding the blade next to the man's neck. A bead of sweat trickled down and landed on the blade of the sword.

Gurenai started laughing a maniacal laugh again. "Bwahahahaha! You'll never catch me!" He drew a sword as well, only this sword was about five feet long. Hiei stared at the sword for a moment, then attacked. _Obviously _he didn't know exactly who Hiei really was.

At first he dove low for a slice at the man's middle, and he hit. The body was cut in half, and Aimi stared at it. "It was that easy…?" she muttered.

Gurenai's torso looked up at Aimi and said, "Don't you underestimate me, Aimi -chan. By tonight, you will be mine!"

Aimi looked at him like he said she had a piece of cheese on her head. "Not while you're cut in half like that."

"Ah, but that's my special ability. I can grow back!" Suddenly both pieces of Gurenai started growing into separate people.

"What the—" Hiei growled before leaping out of the way. The Gurenai with the sword went after Hiei while the other went for Aimi . She was still feeling slightly drained for some reason, and she couldn't get away fast enough. Gurenai 2 grabbed her and held her close to him, pulling her into a giant embrace. She almost couldn't breathe.

"Aimi -chan…" he muttered, smelling her hair and playing with it gently.

'_Does he actually…love me!_' she thought frantically to herself, worrying that she might not be able to get out of the situation at this rate.

Hiei noticed that Aimi had been caught and was thinking of how to defeat Gurenai. '_I can't keep chopping him up…he's just grow back. How can I defeat him?_' Then he remembered that Gurenai was obviously proud of himself in every single way possible. He snapped his fingers, this guy was just way to full of himself.

"Oi, Gurenai!" he shouted to his opponent.

"Eh?" said a confused Gurenai, not seeing why his opponent was chatting with him.

"Are you vulnerable to flame?"

"Unfortunately, yes. There was this time when I was five that—" Hiei cut Gurenai off, right before he launched into his life's story, and mumbled a curse that set his whole body aflame. "GAAAAH!" he screamed in agony as he was burned alive. His other half was obviously not affected, because he continued holding on to Aimi .

"Um..." Aimi grumbled, blushing. 'Why am I blushing?' she asked herself, completely confused. '_Talk about perfect timing for Kan to be 'put away.' Just when I need him most, too..._'

"You're coming with me," Gurenai said in a menacing yet gentle voice.

"B-but what about m-my friends?" she said, slightly flustered at this point.

"You won't ever see them again, I'm afraid. I don't want you falling in love with anyone…_but me_."

Aimi shivered and quickly thought to Hiei, '_Where are you!_'

'_I can't get to you. He has some kind of force field around him._'

'_Seriously?_'

'_Look to your right._'

Aimi turned and saw Hiei pounding on an invisible wall. He really couldn't get to her. She was all alone again, having to fight off this suitor, who she had no intention of marrying. "Please let me go," she said, trying not to cry from fright.

"Never." Aimi realized at this point she couldn't fight him off. He wanted her power—and her for that matter—too much. She started feeling drained. She guessed he was sapping her power so she couldn't get away so matter what she wanted. He was taking her over. "Now…let us go to my humble abode," Gurenai said, a gleam in his eye from getting what he wanted. He started saying something, probably a spell to transport them there.

Aimi was feeling weak, and she couldn't stay conscious for much longer. Hiei realized that Gurenai was about to take Aimi with him somewhere, and he couldn't do a thing. "Aimi !" he cried, trying to break through the wall. 'Aimi !' he cried out with his mind as well.

'Hiei…' she thought, staring directly into his crimson eyes and she and Gurenai faded.

"No, Aimi iii!" he cried as they disappeared.


	8. for now

Once they had completely disappeared, Hiei's knees gave out. The girl he was supposed to protect (not because of feelings, but he WAS her bodyguard after all…_oh brother, cough cough_) has just been kidnapped. "Great…" he muttered, "She's gone…" Hiei stayed on the ground for a few moments, then noticed that if he stayed where he was, he wouldn't help her at all. He got up and began thinking of a way to get her back, pacing as he did so.

The others outside had heard the commotion and decided to come in and see what was wrong. Kurama came in first. He thought that Hiei should've gone in first, but he was nowhere to be found. '_He must already be inside…_' thought Kurama as he slowly opened the door. He saw Hiei pacing and an empty bed. The sheets showed signs of a struggle, and Hiei's troubled expression worried him.

"Hiei?" he asked, "What's wrong? Where's Aimi ?"

Hiei looked up; his brow still furrowed and growled, "She's gone." His words seemed to echo around the room before and after Kurama processed them.

"She's…gone…?" he said, unsure that he had heard Hiei correctly.

"Yes."

Kurama held back the rage he held inside that his sister had been taken. He realized that it was probably not Hiei's fault. Hiei even looked a little tired, showing that he didn't just sit on his butt and watch Aimi being kidnapped. His eyes changed from their normal deep green to a pale red, his anger growing. "Who…took her? Where are they?" Kurama growled in a dangerously unlike-Kurama voice.

"I'm not sure. The man's name was Gurenai, and he said that he was taking her to be with him forever. He said something about her beauty being an added bonus to the power he was going to get from her when marrying her.

"My sister's being married at her age!"

"She's not that young. She's about 16, isn't she?"

"Yes…but she told me that her ideal marrying age was somewhere around 20-30. She was forced into this." Kurama growled again, not happy with whoever took his sister. "This Gurenai _must_ have a death wish.

"That's what I was thinking right after they disappeared."

"Can you explain the whole event to me?"

"Should we invite the others in?"

"No. I don't want them to get too involved in this."

"Hn," Hiei said before continuing on to explain what had happened. He even included the first man that had tried to take Aimi who he had killed on the ground floor. Kurama listened intently the whole time, not even interrupting for clarification. He already knew that Hiei would try and give him every detail he could if it was about his sister. Once he finished, Kurama stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in and stretched. The story had lasted about 15 minutes, and Kurama had only moved to breathe and to blink; he'd stayed in the same position the whole time.

"So…we aren't sure where this Gurenai and Aimi are at the moment?" asked Kurama, wanting to find Aimi before Gurenai could officially marry her.

"No, but I'm thinking that he'd close by."

"Why do you think that?"

"I can still feel his spirit energy close by. It's tainted, so it's harder to track, but I can track it if you give me some time."

"Yes," Kurama said, nodding in approval for the elongated search. "Can I help in any way?"

Hiei almost said no, but then saw the expression on Kurama's face and quickly thought of something he could help with. "Hn... Could you explain the story to the others? They deserve to know but they'll all just get in the way"

Kurama was too worried to point out that they normally worked as a _team_, so he settled for,"Okay," Kurama said, dutifully walking out the door.

Hiei turned around and shook his head. '_That over-protective Kurama...Aimi , you're lucky to have him as your brother. Without him...what would happen? I'm sure it wouldn't be as bad as the situation you're in right now..._'

'_Stop...yourself...up..._' a mysterious voice said in his head. '_Not...fault..._'

'_Aimi ! Is that you!_' Hiei thought frantically, trying to find the voice's owner. It was in his head, but if he just got a little closer...he might hear her better.

'_He...elp...ee..._' she said, getting fainter. Hiei walked in the opposite direction he'd been walking, trying to pick up where she was. He'd guessed that she'd been trying to say, '_Stop beating yourself up,_' and '_Hiei. Help me..._'

'_Under...ound..._'

'_Underground?_'

'_Yes,_' he heard clearly.

'_I must be right over her!_' Hiei thought to himself and jumped out the window and started blowing a hole in the ground with fireballs. Once he heard Aimi saying something aloud (It sounded offly like, "Get away from me, freak!"), he burned sideways instead of down. '_I'll be dead if that bastard hurt her..._' Hiei thought, _and I just dont think I could bear it..._breaking through a wall into a large, open chamber with many torches surrounding it, clinging to the walls. At the other end of the chamber, he saw Aimi chained to the wall by her wrists and ankles, and Gurenai sitting next to her, petting her head. She tried to jerk away, but couldn't because of the chains. She looked up and noticed Hiei.

"Hiei!" she cried, desperate to get away from Gurenai. Hiei dashed over to them, standing about ten feet away from them and said, "Gurenai, are you such a fool that you cant tell that you make her skin crawl!" Gurenai saw Hiei and jumped up, positioning himself in a fighting stance. "You're seriously going to try and fight me again? You won by a fluke last time. This will be twice I have held your life in my hands, and twice I could give it back to you, somehow I doubt that Aimi or Kurama, would be as mericiful as I"

Gurenai smirked and said, "You won't win."

"And why is that?"

Gurenai smirked more and said, "Because I got married to Aimi . I have her power. You can't win."

"No you didn't!" Aimi poked in, a disgusted look on her face. "And not to mention, _Ew!"_

"I told you to shut up and play along so he'd be intimidated!" Gurenai _roared_ and in one quick motion, turned, slapped her and realed around to once again face the fire demon. That slap ignighted new anger in Hiei that demon had pushed him _to far._

Aimi glared at him and growled, "One, Hiei doesn't get intimidated, and two, did you _really_ think I'd act like your my _husband_!"

"If you value your life"

Aimi stared at him. "You're an idiot, aren't you?"

"This is will be the last time you insult me, my love, lets see how much you run your mouth after I slaughter all your friends and you have no one to impress with your words!"

"You pig! What a gross thing to say!"

He ignored her, he dashed towards Hiei, sword drawn. Hiei dodged easily and knocked him out by hitting him with the hilt of his sword, sending him crashing to the ground.

"That was too easy..." Hiei grumbled, just audibly enough for Aimi to hear.

"No, that's the best he could do. Seriously."

"How would you know?" Hiei asked, turning towards Mizhui.

"I'll tell you, while you get me unchained My hands are numb." Hiei looked at her wrists and saw that they were chained above her head, making it near impossible for blood to read them.

"All right," he said, walking over and slicing the chains. After Aimi was safely sitting on the ground, she told him.

"When we first entered here, Gurenai tried to chain me up, but I fought back. For a little bit he was knocked out, but there was no way I could find to get out, and I tired myself out trying to find an escape route. He only chained me up in the end because I was exhausted.phef, what a loser"

"Hn," was all he replied with.

"So...We need to make sure that he is dead, I say we burn him to a crisp."

"hn, I'm not stopping you"

"Noboby is, I think I will enjoy this, in the words of that baka detective"

Aimi got up and dusted herself off, stretching out her limbs. She then stretched her hand toward Gurenai and yelled, "People of the flames, dance!" Gurenai's body was consumed in flames, but suddenly the two heard mocking laughter, certainly not encouraging them.

"So you think I'm going down in flames? Then I challenge you to a duel!" Gurenai cackled, standing up and diminishing the flames surrounding him.

"But aren't you vulnerable to flame?" asked a bewildered Hiei.

"Not anymore. I adapt. I'm never vulnerable to the same thing twice."

"And what happens if I lose?" asked Aimi .

"I didn't challenge you, I challenged Hiei!"

"Hiei doesnt accept" Aimi anwsered for the fire demon, "this is between you and me, pal, nobody else"

Gurenai crossed his arms and pouted while explaining the stakes. "If you win, you can escape alive and I'll curl up and die and never bother you again. If I win, you stay with me forever and all your friends can never come and try to save you."

"Then of course I'll win!" Aimi yelled. "Cause you make me wretch" Hiei rolled his eyes at thier stupidity

"I understand. You start," Aimi said, suddenly getting serious.

the idiot obviously didnt have much talent witha a blade and swung madly at her, she managed to clip him, but he just laughed, saying that he was now immuned to that too. She took all the spirit energy and channelled it through the blade and stabbed him, and ripped out the blade as he bit her, but he was dead before his teeth even sunk in.

"Oi, are you dead?"after a moment he called loudly to it. It didn't move, or respond.

"Hiei, I think he's dead," Aimi called across the chamber to him. "Can we go now?"

Hiei turned to Aimi and sighed. He then did something completely unexpected; he smiled. Aimi gasped when she saw him smile, and Hiei nearly laughed at the gasp. "Yes, we can go."

Aimi jumped in celebration of the fact they got to leave and ran towards the exit, Hiei right behind her. They were both anxious to get out of there. It had an evil aura around it.

Once they got back up to the hospital room, Aimi and Hiei both crashed onto the bed, bringing everyone swarming inside from the noise. They both fell asleep before anyone could ask them questions. It had been an...unusual day to say the least. Kurama stood at the back of the crowd surrounding the pair, attempting to ask them questions without realizing they were asleep. Kurama chuckled and went into Hiei and Aimi 's dreams.

'You two, I have to tell you something,' he whispered into their dreams.

'What?' the answered simultaneously.

'That man was the ringleader of all the suitors trying to find Aimi for her power. With him dead, you don't have to worry about other men coming after Aimi .'

'Hn,' Hiei replied. He was quite happy, actually. No more body guarding!

'YES!' Aimi cried, obviously tired of people chasing after her for about one week.

'You two should rest now, especially since you have nothing to worry about. Sleep now.'

'I will!' Aimi said, falling into a deep sleep.

'Hn,' said a (another) smiling Hiei. (He was only smiling in the dream, but still...)

Kurama left the room from where he had been smiling also. Let them be happy he reasoned.

Aimi cracked open her eyes about an hour later to find Hiei asleep next to her. With out giving herself time to change her mind, kissed the fire demon prouptly on the lips. His eyes fluttered open, while hers remained closed. His arm wrapped around her and he kissed the girl back. _Well, maybe she isnt so bad, besides, she does need protecting, I guess I could stick around..._

Aimi was safe...for the time being.

The End...?

A/N: Heh, I left it at a point where I COULD continue it if I wanted to. Lemme know if you want a sequel! And sorry for the horrid ending. I was planning on killing Aimi , but it seemed to sad compared to the rest of the story. And sorry for the chapter's shortness, but I couldn't come up with anything. And, final thanks to fireflyshanks for helping with song ideas for the song battle! Thanks! Thanks again to all my reviewers for giving me encouragement to continue!


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